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WRITING FOR IMPACT
When writing marketing, publicity, and Web site content, follow these few golden rules for sharp, tight, interesting copy:
- Keep your writing lean, mean, and concise
- Avoid redundancies, run-on sentences, the passive voice and unnecessary adjectives
- Steer clear of words like "really" and "very," which can clutter your copy
- Be a ruthless editor; review your first draft with a "red-pen" mindset, cutting superfluous words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs
- Run the copy past someone you trust; let him or her edit some more
- When deciding between two or more words, use the shortest one; for example:
- Instead of "currently," say "now"
- Instead of "utilize," say "use"
- Instead of "in the near future," say "soon"
- Instead of "numerous," say "many"
- Instead of "lacked the ability to," say "couldn't"
- Don't forget key punctuation rules; some of the most basic (and most abused):
- Commas and periods go inside quotation marks. (Unless you're in England, where the rule is reversed.) So ... "It's a beautiful day." NOT "It's a beautiful day".
- Apostrophes denote possession, not plural: for example:
- Susie Smith's go-go boots (single possessive)
- Bob Smith's goatee (single possessive)
- The Smiths' Harleys (plural + possessive)
- The Smiths met us for dinner (plural, no possessive)
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